Questions remain about shooting near San Jose State University campus

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Members of the San Jose Police Department investigate an officer involved shooting next to San Jose State University near the corner of Eighth St. and San Salvador St. in San Jose, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 21, 2014. Early reports indicate that a member of the San Jose State University Police Department shot and killed a man wielding a knife. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)

Antonio Lopez Guzman and his 4-year-old son, Josiah, had a touching routine to express their love.

Josiah would lie on his father’s chest and Antonio, or “Tony,” would say, “I love you, Josiah Antonio Lopez.” Then his son would say the same to his father.

This would go on three or four times until Josiah’s mother and Guzman’s partner, Laurie Valdez, a woman of quick wit, would say, “OK, we get it. You guys love each other. What about a little love for me?”

In a way the 4-year-old can’t quite understand, that routine has stopped forever.

“Tony,” a part-time landscaper who had edged toward homelessness, was shot dead by San Jose State University police late last month near Eighth and San Salvador streets.

I have little doubt this will be judged a justifiable shooting. No jury wants to second-guess cops in a potentially life-threatening situation. Nonetheless, this case, which is being investigated by San Jose police, prompts more questions than the ordinary.

A) What was Guzman’s original threatening behavior? According to San Jose State officials, Guzman was spotted walking through campus holding a drywall saw, an implement that looks like a knife. Two officers then confronted him off-campus, ordered him to drop the saw and tried to taze him when he did not comply. When Guzman allegedly raised the saw and charged one of the cops, his partner, Sgt. Mike Santos, a 15-year veteran, shot him.

None of us can know for certain what went through the head of the Nayarit, Mexico native. But Guzman’s friends say his English was poor, he had a previous run-in with cops and he probably picked up the saw while going through recycling bins.

“Tony didn’t pay attention to people around him,” Laurie Valdez told me. “He minded his own business. So if someone was trying to talk to him, if they weren’t in front of his face, he wouldn’t assume people were talking to him. He didn’t want to start troubles.”

B) Why was he shot in the back? This is one of the more troubling aspects of the case. If Santos was behind Guzman as Guzman charged the other officer, you could ask whether gunfire could have threatened the second officer’s life. You also have to ask why the threatened officer did not fire himself. Finally, there is the matter of the strange bullet. San Jose State University President Mohammed Qayoumi said a bullet passed through Guzman’s body, changed trajectory, and lodged itself in the second story of the sorority across the street. That’s not impossible. But it’s a conclusion that demands more ballistic explanation.

C) What do the video cameras show? Each of the officers had a video camera on their uniform and my understanding is they were operating during the incident. So this could be the ultimate proof, a demonstration that Guzman did not comply with police demands. So far, however, investigators have not released the recordings. Everyone understands the need for a thorough probe, but there’s too much public interest here for those recordings to be buried permanently. A father is gone. Someday, his son will need answers.